Safety of nickel or chrome plated grilling surfaces

A. Hi Dave. Nichrome wire is used in toasters, electronic cigarettes, and similar applications. It would meet my personal safety sense for a heater for an ice fishing house.

Regards,

  thanks for the comment Ted, I figured it would be ok considering all of its uses but got a little alarmed when I accidentally stumbled unto this forum while researching an entirely different matter.

A. Hi. Again, I personally don't see any substantial difference between this situation and using your toaster, and again I personally wouldn't give it any more of my time.

But the problem remains that we're unlikely to find even very general epistemological studies of the fuming (if any) from heating nichrome wire in a gas flame, yet there are different compositions (nichrome not always 80-20, and sometimes other metals are added), the blue 'reducing' portion of the flame may be different than the yellow 'oxidizing' portion of the flame, etc. As questions become ever more nuanced, with no data available for answers, all we can do is talk common sense ... and common sense isn't always right. My personal approach to it is that if no alarm bells go off when I picture it AND if it's some practice that is reasonably common and I've never heard reports of problems, the potential hazard level is low enough for me.

On the other hand, California requires warning labels that even using gas burners (without the nichrome) will release carcinogenic vapors, and I can't presume to contradict them ... presumably they have data.

Luck & Regards,

A. Hello Luka. In the year 2005, I don't think I'd design a food surface with chromium plating on it any longer, although it has been used in the past. I doubt that a grilling surface that a consumer is looking at is chrome plated; it's probably nickel plated or polished stainless steel. But in any case, if there is chrome on it, it's metallic chrome; it's not in the hexavalent state and I don't think it will spontaneously become hexavalent from the heat. Nickel is quite acid resistant, so I doubt that much nickel can be leached out.

Unfortunately your question is abstract. If you will tell us whether you are a designer wanting to know if it's safe to specify, vs. a consumer who knows with certainty that their vintage grill is nickel-chromium plated, vs. a consumer who has a shiny new grill and is just assuming it's nickel-chrome, then we could probably answer better. Thanks!

A. Nickel is quite inert and is used, I believe, on virtually all oven racks and baking racks and a lot of B-B-Q grills, Luka. I've never heard of any reports of toxicity; if any reader has, please correct me.

A. It's true that there are several different nickel plating solutions, Bill, but regardless of whether the nickel plating salt was sulfamate, sulphate, chloride, etc., the deposit is nickel metal. Again, as far as I know there is no nickel contamination of food.

But again, abstract questions can receive misleading answers. Please tell us your situation.

A. I don't believe there is any real danger from either nickel or chromium -- but I don't design food surfaces and a designer of this stuff has to look into NSF and FDA and other government approvals, and should be tuned into that industry. But as I mentioned, I would probably avoid chromium plating, simply because who wants to defend it these days? The best process is probably sulphamate nickel because it can be done without any addition agents and they can lead to discoloration and blistering with heat.

Electropolishing applies to stainless steel not carbon steel, and isn't always quite as bright as nickel-chrome plating, but electropolished stainless steel is great for corrosion resistance, and as a food surface because of its microscopic smoothness. But you are still talking in the abstract, not introducing yourself and your situation. An answer to a curious consumer who is trying to judge a product based on sales pap is a totally different thing than design advice to a manufacturer :-)

A. Hi, Mimi. I've personally never heard of anything like that and find it unlikely. If we choose to be suspicious, maybe the grills are stainless steel and have good scrap value and they wanted them. But a general principle is that it is always questionable to use items for purposes for which they were not intended. When that is done, the researchers and statisticians and epidemiologists who are always busy tracking trends have no feedback through which to foresee problems. I am not chemophobic in the least, so I would probably use them myself, but there is no way to insure you that they are safe -- because nobody conducts double-blind research on using oven racks under the direct flame and higher temperatures of B-B-Q grills.

Decades ago, refrigerator shelving was (at least sometimes) cadmium plated and definitely could (and did) cause food contamination issues when used as a B-B-Q grill surface.

Regards,

A. Hello again, Luka. Stainless steel is considered one of the safest of all food surfaces, and most people do not believe in such leaching.

Regards,

A. Hi Joe. I think it is not a problem. People burn their stainless steel pots and pans on their stovetop all the time :-)

But the temperature of burning coal or charcoal is highly dependent upon the ventilation conditions. If that were not the case we certainly wouldn't be able to melt steel or do blacksmithing.

Regards,

A. Hi L. Nickel plating will not melt.

But I am not from the appliance industry and not comfortable trying to advise people what the FDA and other legal standards as well as good practices are. Familiarity with the issues of an industry sector, gained through industry journals, conference attendance, membership in educational organizations & trade groups, and retained experience learned from mentors are important -- and while I can offer some of that on metal finishing issues, I can offer none regarding the design of grates for various appliances. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Robert. Nickel plating is used on the continuous casting ("extrusion") molds for red hot steel, so the temperature is not really a problem for top quality nickel plating. But I'd bet that the stainless hinge is better quality and that you'll be happier with it longer.

Regards,

A. Hi Bill. The general principle is don't use materials for purposes that weren't intended; but grilling is not that different than baking & broiling, so I can't see any reason that you can't. They are almost surely nickel plated or stainless steel and therefore food-safe. However, the corrosion situation outdoors is much different than in an oven and they will probably start rusting in pretty short order, especially if the grill doesn't have a top or isn't kept closed.

Note that decades ago refrigerator racks as opposed to oven racks were sometimes cadmium plated and this was a genuine health concern; I saw a medical article where serious illness in a whole family was tracked to using those old cadmium plated racks on a barbecue. Bon Appetit.

Regards,

A. Hi Skip. Replacements are available even for limited budgets. You're not going to get them clean short of sanding, and they will be prone to rusting, but good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Katherine. I don't think I've actually seen one of those kitchen stoves with nickel or nickel-chrome plated griddles, and I'm sure I've never seen anything cooked on one. It's probably quite impractical to cook anything on such a griddle because using steel wool for cleanup would quickly destroy the shine.

Although I don't think there's any significant danger from either, I doubt that anyone has done safety studies per today's standards. Nickel-chrome plating will be shinier and longer lasting than nickel plating without the chrome.

Regards,

A. Hi Dan. My guideline is that is something was not designed for that purpose its not a good idea to use it for that purpose. Yes, the U-line Chrome Rack is probably just nickel and chrome plated and is probably okay. But in our high technology age, things are sometimes not made of what we think they are; and these days there is zero enforcement of truth in labeling for such issues. So really, how do you know it's not chrome-look paint, or that it hasn't been coated with a polyurethane to forestall rust? And even if it is standard nickel and chrome plating, what if the plating blisters and peels? Some plating can withstand very high temperatures, but if something was designed to be a storage rack we really have no grounds for expectations or complaints if the plating doesn't hold up to temperatures in excess of boiling.

Finally, just because people used nickel-chrome plated trays, can openers, flatware and cake knives in the past is not epidemiological evidence that cooking on chrome would be considered safe these days. Something made from stainless steel would certainly be better. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Pete. It seems highly unlikely that the grate is made of copper, but there could be copper plating underneath the nickel plating.

It's very difficult to judge what something is actually made of from its appearance though. I was at one of America's best known museums for a project once, and while the metals curator was called away to the phone I was looking at the "silver plated" & "nickel plated" tea sets and serving dishes and such stuff as you see in such museums. Upon her return I mentioned that I was a bit surprised that I couldn't reliably tell nickel plating from silver because the labels had proved several of my guesses wrong. Her response was "Oh. We probably just guessed; tell us what you think they are and we'll change the labels." Guessing from appearance can so easily be wrong, and the information which we use to build our knowledge base much less trustworthy than we assume :-)

Replacement thin-wire grates might be cheap enough to be worth it, and almost surely less expensive than replating. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Dave. Nichrome wire is used in toasters, electronic cigarettes, and similar applications. It would meet my personal safety sense for a heater for an ice fishing house.

Regards,

  thanks for the comment Ted, I figured it would be ok considering all of its uses but got a little alarmed when I accidentally stumbled unto this forum while researching an entirely different matter.